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US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

intelligence.senate.gov

31–40 of 579 posts

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#31

This is long overdue, and pardon my jade, but there is nothing in here that is at all a surprise. The only news in this release is that the government itself is finally recognizing what civil society has known for years: as soon as you put government and psychologists together, you have trouble.

Well, medical personnel in general-when you add them to the apparatus of interrogation, bad things happen.

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#32
post #10

Why do they insist on saying 'enhanced interrogation technique' instead of torture? Even when it obviously means torture: "Another senior CIA officer stated that COBALT was itself an enhanced interrogation technique." When talking about a physical place. That is so blatant word replacement that I find it hard to take it seriously.

This is probably why:

"While the Office of Legal Counsel found otherwise between 2002 and 2007, it is my personal conclusion that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured."

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#33
post #10

Why do they insist on saying 'enhanced interrogation technique' instead of torture? Even when it obviously means torture: "Another senior CIA officer stated that COBALT was itself an enhanced interrogation technique." When talking about a physical place. That is so blatant word replacement that I find it hard to take it seriously.

In her introductory letter, Feinstein said it: "...it is my personal conclusion that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured." (page 4)

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the first paragraph makes it clear: "On April 3, 2014, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted to send the Findings and Conclusions and the Executive Summary of its final Study on the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program to the President for declassification and subsequent public release"... EDIT: also the fact that it's stamped "Unclassified" everywhere. If it was stamped as still classified and had b…

Wait what? >>EDIT: also the fact that it's stamped "Unclassified" everywhere. If it was stamped as still classified and had been leaked, anyone with a clearance would risk losing it by reading the file. So a person with clearance can't read a leaked classified document? I'm confused, more explanation please ;-) This IS sounding vaguely familiar in some way, but I don't get it. EDIT: Thanks for all the replies. Also,…

Yeah, a security clearance prohibits viewing anything like this. Even if you have Top Secret you can't look at things that weren't meant for you to read.

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#37
post #5

This is horrific. Just reading the findings and conclusions section is astounding. Embarrassing and shameful day for the USA.

I am not an American, but I have one specific positive point to say about that: generally the only way to get a country to acknowledge the horror it did is to invade it and trial the leaders (Germany WWII: trial, Iraq against kurds: trial, France Vichy: nothing substantial, France colonial wars: amnesty, USSR: nothing, Yugoslavia: trial, without real invasion). In this instance, nobody is in court (if we ignore Poland), but at least there is some admission.

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#38
An incredibly thoughtful and non provoking introduction to the document from Dianne Feinstein. This is a good thing and anything that can help America step back from her actions in future and take pause rather than extreme and counter productive measures is a good thing.

I hope some day that just like the well tested evidence that torture doesn't work it'll be shown that mass surveillance also gives next to nothing that targeted data gathering wouldn't.

Re: US Senate Report on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

#40
> Moreover, CIA officers told U.S. ambassadors not to discuss the CIA program with State Department officials, preventing the ambassadors from seeking guidance on the policy implications of establishing CIA detention facilities in the countries in which they served. (#8)

I was not aware the CIA could order an ambassador from seeking the guidance of its superiors...

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